Deep in the heart of the single city of the Country of Weed, a palace once stood, tall and majestically projected against the darkness of any moonlit sky.
Such was the palace; a traditionally built wooden and paper household, earthquakes or other natural disasters would not bother its residents. With the collapse of any such wall or room, any inside would not be seriously injured, with only paper and broken pieces of wood to fall upon them.
However there was one particular disaster that the palace was in grave danger of falling victim to.
And that was fire.
It was during the night, the night of a full moon, when citizens awoke to the smell of cinder and the hot breeze that swept through every window in every ally. Swift measures were taken, as men and women alike rolled and jumped out of their beds to race to the blazing landmark of the Weed.
People either moved quickly, or not at all. While some departed to bring water and others began preparation to keep the fire from spreading, others stood transfixed and staring at the inferno. Flames danced in the eye of each beholder, brilliantly blinding, although somewhat enchanting.
It would be those people, gazing in wonder at the fire, a group consisting mostly of the children, who would begin a widely ignored rumor of flaming demons, ifrits, emerging from the flames and flying away to join the already rampant vampires in their reign of terror.
Although the reasons for the start of the fire remained unknown, the idea of a fire being started by demons was quickly discarded.
After all, who wants to believe that both fire demons and vampires were out for the ruin of your village?
"I can't believe you were going to leave me behind," a raven-haired boy growled as he quickly stripped himself of an already smoldering blue shirt. Reaching around the corner of the ally in which he sat, he snatched a small bucket full of water ready to be shipped off to the blazing palace and, without hesitation, doused himself.
"That was mean, Sasuke," the tall man behind him scolded. "If you keep doing things like that, how do you expect those poor villagers to put out the fire you set?" Ignoring the glare sent his way, accompanied by what could either be a first-degree burn or a blush, the man sobered quickly, turning his attention to the girl draped over his shoulder.
Seeing his teacher's slight concern, Sasuke also turned his attention to the pink haired girl across Kakashi's back. "Is she alright?" he inquired quietly.
"Chakra exhaustion, accompanied by what appeared to be a pretty bad sunburn…" Kakashi replied carefully. "She hasn't woken up since I found her about to be brained."
The boy winced only slightly, instinctively rubbing the still sore throat area of his neck.
"We should head back to the inn."
Nodding in agreement, the two members of the Cell Seven gennin team stood, Kakashi still gently carrying the unconscious Sakura, and turned out of the ally.
Walking quickly to the inn in which they currently held rooms, the team turned their backs on the palace; currently going up in flames almost as quickly as their list of reasons to remain in this village. With the current and past situations catching up to the team, there seemed to be little reason for them to continue on their mission.
No benefactor and two out of commission teammates, one of which's current location remained unknown; there was really little they could do.
Just as the pitiful state of this particular list was brought to their attention, however, there was one item that began to emerge from the unknown, the shadows. And although there was little that they thought of the item in the beginning, future consideration would warrant a much closer inspection in the affairs of the Weed country justice system.
A rough, hacking, cough brought the two shinobi's attention quickly around, focusing instantly upon a soot covered girl just as she found herself in a sudden meeting with the rough and uneven stone road.
Attempting to inhale from the pain, the pigtailed blonde girl found she could only grasp at the shallowest intakes of breath. In both desperation and panic, she began to breathe faster and faster, her breaths becoming shallower in her attempts to get at the abundance of air around her.
Her vision began to swim, green eyes dilated in hyperventilation, as the last thing she saw was the widening of a certain silver haired man's widened slightly in recognition.
"Ka…kashi…san…" was all she was able to struggle through before succumbing to the darkness.
The two men stared at the girl for only a moment more before Kakashi looked expectantly at the boy beside him.
"Well," he said a bit urgently, "aren't you going to help her?"
Sasuke only continued to stare, slightly panicked as he recognized just what 'helping' the poor pigtailed girl would entail.
Here was a lithe female body lying before him, unconscious from what was obviously smoke intake. Her slender face was covered in soot, and her bright blonde hair splayed out around her, mingling with the surrounding dirt.
Before he could think about the situation anymore, however, a quick blow to the back of his knees by the slightly irritated Kakashi, who was currently mumbling something about prudish pretty boy shinobi, forced him to the ground directly in front of the oddly familiar girl.
Once again, before he could ponder upon that lane of thought any further, he was brought back one more by his jounin sensei's yelling at him to 'just do it before she dies'.
With that, Sasuke then looked down and roughly wiped the area around her mouth free of some of the soot, tilted her head back, pinched her nose, and took the plunge.
Now safely back at the inn, Sasuke took the opportunity to glare at his jounin sensei without abandon, until the man felt he should relent and tell the boy where he had met the girl he was made to…intimately rescue…then carry all the way back to the inn.
Lucky for him, Kakashi had every intention of telling the boy, but simply wanted to make him stew in his anger for a bit. After all, a flustered and angry Sasuke was a fun to tease Sasuke.
"Alright," the silver haired jounin whined piteously, "look, you can't stay angry at me forever Sasuke. After all, you owed her anyways."
Watching Sasuke's still angry, but now slightly curious eyes, Kakashi laughed inwardly, while outwardly attempting to continue looking poor and remorseful. A curious mind was something most people didn't attribute to the dark haired Uchiha, but to his teacher, it was an obvious trait.
"You don't remember her," Kakashi continued, "because that was when you fainted-"
"I didn't faint," Sasuke quickly interjected. "I was…" averting his eyes, Sasuke paused a moment before finishing. "Never mind."
"Mah, Sasuke, are you hiding something from me?" Kakashi inquired slowly, curiously, leaning in to see the boy's reaction.
"H-hey! This isn't about me! This is about her! The girl! How did she know your name and what do you mean I owe her?"
Grinning behind his mask, Kakashi looked down at the boy before choosing to give up his advantage and simply answer the question.
"If you remember, just before you…fainted, Sakura asked me to go out and find the palace for us. Now, while it didn't take me long, I did have the chance of bumping into somebody that was willing to help us out even further." Gesturing at the girl on the bed beside them, Kakashi looked seriously at Sasuke. "Sushi, I believe was how she introduced herself. It was only courteous that I should give my name as well in return. Purely out of the kindness of her heart," at this Sasuke snorted and Kakashi did his best to ignore that gesture, "this girl was the one that provided us with water and directions." Looking at Sasuke he paused.
"How kind of her," he reiterated, doing his best to mimic the stoic gennins voice and mannerisms. "Such a wonderful and kindhearted person that saved my sorry ass and to which I was indebted to and am grateful that I was given the chance to return the favor."
Sasuke snorted irritably.
"Besides," Kakashi reminded the boy in his normal relaxed tone, "I was carrying Sakura, you can't expect me to strain my back for a complete stranger, now can you?"
Tugging a the weights on his wrists, Sasuke couldn't help but wonder if Kakashi remembered that he had been wearing them at all. The trip had taken a fantastic amount of will power to finish, and now all the gennin wanted to do was join the two girls in sleeping. However, much to his irritation, both his and Kakashi's beds were taken and he had nowhere to sleep.
Still tugging at his weights, he noticed a slightly curious sensation around his wrists. Glancing down, he drew his index finger across his right hand, and then lifted it for inspection.
The tip of his finger was dusted with what seemed to be a heavy coating of some kind of powder. Skin colored powder, like some kind of make up.
When had he gotten it on his hands?
Looking up at his teacher, he sighed as he noticed was the man was currently reading. Before he could tear his teacher's mind away from the book, however, somebody beat him to the punch.
"Kakashi-sensei…"
Looking up, the jounin smiled as his eyes met with the confused emerald eyes of his team's kunoichi.
"Good morning Sakura."
Obviously confused, Sakura's eyes swept around the room, moving from Sasuke, to Sushi's unconscious form, to the door, then settling on her mentor.
"What happened? All I remember is setting my head down on that table for a moment…and…"
"Negotiations took place while you were sleeping, Sakura, and seeing no reason to wake you, we simply carried you back with us."
"Hnn," was all that Sakura mumbled while tenderly massaging her stomach. She obviously hadn't been paying too much attention to what the man was saying, but Kakashi didn't push it.
Once again however, Sakura's eyes drifted over to the sleeping Sushi. "Isn't that the girl that brought the water, Sensei? What's she doing here?"
"She had and accident," Kakashi replied smoothly. "We ran into her on our way here and she fainted, requiring that Sasuke-"
"Carry her back," the boy himself interjected quickly. "Just…carry her back."
Aww, but Sasuke, Kakashi whispered Don't you want to tell her about-
This is Sakura in question, the boy replied. Keep your mouth shut unless you want to hear her whine about this for the rest of your life
…Good point
Turning his attention back to Sakura, Kakashi opened his arms widely and smiled. "Sakura guess what?" he proclaimed loudly and clearly. "Sasuke kissed an unconscious girl while you were sleeping!"
"Damn Kakashi for saying things that can be so easily misinterpreted to troublesome women…" Sasuke mumbled to himself, rubbing the mark that had been made on his cheek by the out of control Sakura.
Sitting on the bed opposite the sleeping Sushi, Sasuke paused to examine her face. Having been left behind by the fuming Sakura, who went out after eating to train, and Kakashi, who was out doing god knows what, Sasuke was the only one around to let the girl know what had happened after she woke up.
Studying her closely, Sasuke had noticed many different things about her, as he really had nothing better to do for the last fifteen minutes. He had done his best to take in as many details as possible from the girl whom had supposedly saved his life.
He couldn't remember her eye color, as her eyes had been closed since she fainted, but he had noticed her slender build, and he could remember the smoothness of her body from having carried her. Her blonde hair was matted and dirty, but it was unique in its two long ponytails that fell down far past her shoulders.
She was attractive, Sasuke decided, but at least not overly so. After all her bust…
Sasuke turned his attention back to the face, only slightly embarrassed at having caught himself examining her in that way. After all, he had no intention of courting the girl at all, even if she should wake up and show some kind of attraction to him.
He simply didn't have the time for any kind of dating.
Glancing at his wrist weights once more, he remembered the training he should be doing, instead of watching this girl and waiting for her to wake. Or they should be leaving Weed country all together, and beginning their search for Naruto. After all, it was obvious that the Weed government had not warm intentions for the team.
However, their silver haired sensei had advised against leaving right away. The way he had put it was something like…
"We still have something we have to do, whether we were hired for it or not. Besides, are you saying you want to wimp out Sasuke? After all it's your choice as team captain for us to leave or to stay and see this through like men. Or of course women. Calm down Sakura. And you too Sasuke…
With that attitude I might think you disliked me calling you a man…You did, didn't you!? Are you a woman too, Sasuke?"
Or at least something like that. Regardless, they were staying; Sasuke had made up his mind.
Still massaging his wrist, the boy was reminded of the powder he had discovered earlier. He had forgotten to mention it to Kakashi earlier, but he was pretty sure he had picked it up recently, and that it was some kind of make up. Assuming that he got it from a woman's face, god forbid, the only person he had touched recently had been that girl, Sushi, when he was wiping her face clean of soot.
While not intricately familiar with make up himself, he had picked a few things up from Naruto in the past. Namely that skin-colored make up could be used to cover up scars or other distinguishing characteristics during an infiltration.
With that in mind, Sasuke warily inspected the girl's face. She did look familiar, and if she was hiding something, it could be dangerous. The best and smartest course of action would be to check her while she was still out of it.
Slowly standing, he carefully moved over to the girl's side, leaning close to her face. Raising one hand, he reached forward to carefully brush the powder away.
In that instant, however, Lady Luck spat in his face. Just as he put himself in the compromising position, the girl's eyes snapped open. Staring into her blue eyes for an instant, he was caught by surprise as he was met by yet another slap to the face.
He was stunned. That was twice today he had been caught by surprise. Looking again at the girl, he noticed she had rolled off of the opposite side of bed and was looking at him from the other side.
"Pervert…" she muttered.
Sasuke didn't immediately reply. Perhaps he was mistaken before, but now taking a good look at the girl's eyes, he noticed they were green.
Thinking back, when she had awoken, weren't her eyes blue? He doubted he was mistaken.
There was obviously something wrong here, and he didn't like it at all.
Still fuming, Sakura finally reappeared at the inn, slipping her shoes off and working consciously to refrain from stomping though the foyer. Silently, the girl made her way to the stairwell, her bubblegum pink hair swaying with restrained fury, brow furrowed, and green eyes focused intently towards the floor a few steps in front of her.
Sasuke was being such a…
…nice guy…
And she didn't know why it infuriated her so much. After she had hit the dark haired boy, he had explained rather huffily that he had only done it to save that blonde girl's life. It was kiss her or let her die. She had no problem with that.
What really made her angry was that the boy seemed to have no clue about why this might upset her. He knew she liked him and he was still confused. It really hurt her that he didn't know her as well as she hoped he had.
Then came the anger, to cope with the grief.
How dare that girl take Sasuke's special kiss, why didn't she just die?
It was after that thought that she immediately made her way out of the hotel and outside the city limits to practice her chakra exercises. It was probably best she work out the aggression, she figured, rather than let it build and tear out that blonde slut's throat before she awoke.
Needless to say, all the training did was foster her frustration through failure and a now grimy, sweaty body.
"Fu…" Sakura held back a curse. It felt totally out of character for her to feel this angry, but swearing would only foster into habit later. No proper lady swore, kunoichi or not.
Still, remembering that the rooms held no baths really irked her. She had hoped to fill a tub with a nice amount of warm water and simply soak until her anger left her, hoping it left before she got wrinkled.
So deep she was in her angry thoughts, however, Sakura failed to look before turning the corner at the top of the stairs, resulting in a resounding crash as she met a girl traveling the opposite direction from herself.
"Ehh, ouch…" Sakura moaned, caressing her forehead as she glanced over to the other victim in the accident.
Solid white hair played across the wooden flooring beneath the slightly tall, athletic looking girl lying on the ground before her. Although her attire was strictly homely, Sakura noticed a few oddities about the girl.
First and foremost was that she currently wasn't breathing.
"Shit!" Sakura cried as she moved to shake the girl's shoulders, then carefully check her pulse.
There was no beat.
…the girl was dead.
Eyes widening, Sakura stumbled back from the body, pressing herself up against the wall of the corridor. What had happened, all that should have occurred was a possible bump on the noggin. How had she died?
Panicking, Sakura fell over herself trying to get back to the body of the girl, throwing herself at it and shaking for all she was worth. Checking the pulse again, it was all in vain.
Clamping her eyes shut, Sakura simply prayed that the girl's soul would forgive her for her mistake. If she hadn't been so angry…
"Oh my, are you okay? You look rather upset."
Flinging herself once again away from the body, Sakura stared at the talking corpse.
"Really now, what's the matter?" the white haired girl questioned her blankly as she pulled her scattered hair up into a pretty little bun. "You look as though you've seen a ghost."
"It's my meds. Although it's completely necessary for me to take them, their side effects do hold a certain risk."
After flailing around for a bit, before checking and rechecking the girl's pulse and deciding that she was indeed not a zombie come back from the grave to haunt her, Sakura agreed when the white haired teenager had suggested they discuss the issue in the previously unmentioned open aired hot spring.
In fact, Sakura had agreed without hesitation. If she had known that the inn had had an open aired bath before this, she would have gone straight there anyways.
Relaxing in the waters, Sakura allowed herself to examine the other girl before her. Now given the chance to more closely observe the other girl, Sakura decided that the term athletic didn't entirely fit the white haired teenager. She looked more delicate and smooth without any defined muscle that the description athletic implied.
However, she was indeed tall, and her deeply tanned skin accented her long white hair in a way that Sakura deemed pretty exotic.
Sitting in silent companionship, the other girl suddenly reached behind her and revealed a small brown bottle. Giving the top a sharp turn, the tanned girl tilted her head back and took a deep swig of whatever liquid sloshed inside it.
"What do you take your meds for?" Sakura inquired after a bit of quiet observation.
"Hm?" The reply was sleepy, without much thought to it. "What do you mean?"
"Are you sick?" Sakura reiterated, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
"Sick…? I'm not sure…" the girl smiled sweetly, openly. "My parents told me to take it whenever I feel a little uncomfortable," pausing, she pondered something for a moment. "By the way, you can call me Kai Lynn."
"Was that what was making you uncomfortable?" Sakura smiled. "My name is Sakura. Please, feel free to address me in whatever way makes you feel most comfortable."
Kai Lynn smiled once again in relief. "Thanks, Schnukums."
"S-schnukums…"
"Yes, isn't it a cute nickname?" Taking notice of Sakura's twisted face, the girl frowned slightly, quickly taking another draught from her dark brown bottle. "Do you not like it?" she asked quietly.
Damn, I did offer to let her call me what she wanted, but I didn't think… "No, it's fine," Sakura forced out, stiffly trying to wave off the other girl's discomfort. "I did offer…"
The awkward conversation stopped suddenly and fell into a less than comfortable silence in which Sakura tried to relax and Kai Lynn found herself taking more and more swigs of whatever meds she was on.
Whatever that liquid was, though, it made Sakura worry. She hadn't known the other girl for long, but she seemed like a nice girl. A part of the pink haired kunoichi wanted to protect the tanned teenager. Those meds couldn't really be helping her. Every time she took a swig, her eyes got less and less focused and her movements became even more lethargic. Her anemic reaction at the stairwell was also still fresh in the kunoichi's mind.
She even seemed less in touch with reality than she should be, and, judging from the way her skin was beginning to turn a reddish color against her tan, she wasn't able to logically tell she was boiling herself by sitting right next to the hot water spigot. If the meds were causing this, it probably wouldn't be too much longer before they killed her.
"Lynn," Sakura gently coaxed the nervous girl, "come here. You need to get out of the water."
"Hm…?" was the sleepy reply Sakura received.
"Lynn, come here." Sakura said it a bit more forcefully this time, a bit cautious about getting near the spigot herself.
Kai Lynn only mumbled something incoherently before lulling her head. Sakura cried out sharply as the other girl's head slipped under the water.
"Lynn!"
As swiftly as she could, Sakura moved over to the ledge at which Kai Lynn previously sat and pulled her dripping from the scalding water. Moving even faster, the pink haired girl wondered how Kai Lynn could stand sitting in such hot water for so long. In only the few moments she had spent pulling the tanned girl from the water, she could already feel herself beginning to burn.
"Shoot, those meds really are dangerous…" Sakura mumbled to herself. Struggling only slightly with the other girl's limp form, the pink haired kunoichi leveled the other girl out of the water and tried to lay her in the most comfortable position she could before grabbing a nearby towel and wrapping it around herself.
It was at this point that Sakura stopped for a moment, pausing to reflect on her current situation.
Here she was, naked in an open-air bath with an obviously drugged teenage girl suffering from what should be severe burns, even though from the looks of things she would be fine if she was quickly cooled off. To accomplish bringing this girl's temperature to a safe degree, however, she would be forced to leave the bath without the time to get dressed and run sopping wet and partially nude for a bucket of ice and some cool water.
…not high on her list of things she wanted to do before she turned twenty, but fairly high on her things she had to do right away, right between breathing and panicking.
Sakura was not happy, but she was desperate. And so within a few seconds, she shook herself and threw the door open to the changing rooms and hopefully in the direction of ice water…
…and ran headfirst into a bright blond pigtailed girl on her way into the bath.
"I hope this isn't becoming a habit," Sakura mumbled to herself, before realizing a very important fact.
Sushi wasn't sopping wet like she was and thus better suited for running half naked through the inn in search of ice and cool water.
"Wait," Sakura quickly cried out after the pigtailed teen, who stood back up and attempted to push past the pink haired girl, mumbling something about 'crazy and impatient ninja kunoichi'. Almost as quickly as she cried out, however, she began rethinking her idea.
Ignoring Sushi's confused look, bordering on annoyance, she considered what effects having the pigtailed girl run through the inn nude-
-Partially nude, She reminded herself--could have on Sasuke with his recent strange behavior. Besides, didn't she hate the girl a few moments ago?
In the end, however, logic won out and she forced herself to look at the girl and ask, a little too timidly for her liking, "Would you mind running out real quick and finding some ice water, one of the other residents went and boiled herself and I…" Sakura found her voice trailing off.
Sushi blinked. "Sure, why not?"
Gazing on in shock, Sakura watched to blonde girl grab a nearby towel, wrap it around her waist and open the door to go back into the inn.
"Hold it!" Sakura cried. "You need to cover your…um…chest…"
Sushi blinked once again. "Oh yeah." Swiftly adjusting the towel so that it now covered her completely, the girl disappeared from the doorway in search of the ice.
"That…was weird." Sakura mumbled with a blush.
Splashing the dark skinned girl with her recently acquired ice water, Sakura felt more than relieved. With Lynn now recovering-
-and currently supporting a beating heart, she thought relieved-
-she could feel her tension finally beginning to leave her body. She supposed this might also have something to do with how she no longer felt like strangling the odd blonde haired girl.
In fact, she smiled as she turned and slipped into the water across form the currently soaking Sushi.
"Mind if I join you?" Sakura asked sweetly, already beginning to relax once more in the warm waters. To her surprise, the other girl looked a bit uncomfortable before smiling back with a simple nod.
She certainly is an odd girl, Sakura thought carefully. Maybe…
She quickly brushed away that thought though. After all, what would the odds be?
Slowly, Sakura began to grow bored in the slightly tense atmosphere. Hoping a little conversation would lighten things, she looked up at Sushi, gathering her breath and asked her the first thing that came to her mind.
"So…how's life?"
Startled, Sushi looked at Sakura a little confused before she smiled, answering softly,
"It just is. Not really good, not really bad. So I suppose it's kinda just…here."
Well, Sakura thought to herself, at least this conversation won't be too boring…
From the Desk of Tyr'll
If only she knew how right she would be…
Sorry for the wait…
Well not really, but I do apologize for keeping you waiting. This chapter was kinda hard for me to write because it is a lot of filler, with some heavy set up. Next chapter, however, will begin the awaited for fight scenes. I so just want to do those; I have some interesting scenarios planned out for quite a few of my characters.
Please, don't be afraid of my Ocs though. While important to this current arc, they won't really be appearing later on in the story unless through some deep thinking or a lot of begging through reviews.
But then, I highly doubt that you would care THAT much for my original characters. Regardless, hope you enjoyed the chapter and hopefully the next one won't take so long to appear.
Also, if this chapter didn't fulfill your prayers for Naruto centeredness, don't worry. He'll be back soon. Like in a chapter or two.
Oh, two more things.
One, someone gave the suggestion of putting a 'previously on' section at the top of my chapters. While this would probably be a good idea, I must decline to do so due to several complications. Namely, my being too lazy.
If it gets to be too much of a problem, then I'll do it though.
Second, remember if you have any questions, please hesitate to PM me, but don't hesitate to review. I won't give away plot points, but if something needs to be clarified, I will do so.
Thanks!